Friday, June 13, 2014

We have nothing to fear but triskaidekaphobia. Or; it's bad luck to be superstitious.

Saturday, June 07, 2014

Chupacabra Report

News that
Gets My Goat

-Been a lot
of news coverage of open carry activists this week, especially after the NRA
asked them to tone it down because they were scaring people by carrying their
mini 14s and shotguns into stores and restaurants. Actually, I was disappointed
to hear that they are prohibited from packing at the GOP Convention at the Fort
Worth Convention Center. I thought it would be fitting if the tory wingnuts who
have done so much to advance our rights under the Second Amendment had to take
their chances with armed delegates preforming inadvertent ‘drop tests’ with
their handguns while they fall all over themselves applauding Greg Abbott,
Danny Goeb and Rafael “Ted” Cruz.

“The
numbers are pathetic. In a state with more than 26 million residents, the
combined turnout in last Tuesday's runoffs was 951,461 voters. That's lower
than the March 4 primary number of 1.8 million, lower than the 1.3 million
turnout in the last primary runoffs in July 2012. All three of those numbers
pale in contrast to the number of registered voters in this state - 13.6
million, according to the Secretary of State's office.

“Dan Patrick, the Houston state senator on the verge of
taking charge of arguably the most powerful elective office in Texas, won his
lieutenant governor's race Tuesday with 65 percent of the votes cast. Those 65
percent account for a paltry 3.5 percent of registered Texas voters.

“What the dismal numbers mean, of course, is that a small
percentage of the voting-eligible population exerts an outsized influence on
how we educate our children, how we spend our tax money, how we invest in our
future. A large majority of Texans allows someone else to make those decisions
for them”

Fact is, Texas is not really a “red state,” it is merely
a non-voting state; much like how it is not really a job-creating state, it’s
just that it has a high birthrate, which makes for a lot of service jobs.

-Last week, Dallas suburb Farmers Branch Texas spent $1.4
million to finally put to rest their ill-conceived city ordinance banning home
rentals to illegal immigrants. This from the Dallas Morning News:

“More than seven years after beginning a divisive attempt
to ban immigrants in the U.S. illegally from rental housing, a united City
Council decided to cut its losses Tuesday — paying $1.4 million to the lawyers
who fought the effort.

“Farmers Branch previously had spent more than $6 million
defending the ordinance, which was never enforced.

“In 2012, a federal judge sided with the 10 Hispanic
plaintiffs in the second suit and established single-member council districts
in the city. That resulted in the election of the first Mexican-American on the
council.

“In addition to the millions of dollars it spent on
expenses related to the illegal immigration lawsuits, the city spent about
$850,000 to fight the two voting rights suits.”

This city of 29,000 residents, with an annual budget of
$90 million, has approved three property tax hikes in these past seven years.

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Chupacabra Report

-I was
pleased to read that the Federal Elections Commission is still on the case of Congressloon Steve Stockman. The Chronicle
reported this week that the FEC informed Stockman that "Since the
candidate is not seeking office and will not participate in the general
election, any contribution received for the general election must be returned
to the donors," the FEC's letter reads. "Although the Commission may
take further legal action, your prompt action to refund these contributions
will be taken into consideration."

"Please
note, you will not receive an additional notice from the Commission on this
matter," the letter read. "Adequate responses must be received by the
Commission on or before" June 13 "to be taken into consideration in
determining whether … action will be initiated."

Hah! Just deserts
for this career grifter; hit him in the pocketbook. I wonder if he invested
his campaign cash in Bitcoins last year before they fell 60% in value?

-I just read
about Grover Norquist’s Ronald Reagan Legacy Project, a movement to name
something after Ronald Reagan in every county in the nation. Nevada Republican
Joe Heck introduced a bill in Congress to name Frenchman’s Peak, east of Las
Vegas, after the 40th President. Oregon Democrat Pete DeFazio
introduced an amendment to name Yucca Mountain after Reagan, as Reagan
supported establishing a nuclear waste depository there. This inspired Democrat
Jared Huffman of California to go them both one better and re-name the earth “Planet
Reagan.”

Friday, April 11, 2014

Chupacabra Report

News that
Gets My Goat:

I had CSPAN
on for wallpaper the other day and noticed that the House General Speeches was
all the Texas GOP delegation so I had to turn on the sound and see what crazy
shit they were saying. I listened to Pete Olson stammering for a while and
gathered that Kent Hance was retiring from his position as Chancellor of Texas
Tech. This was an occasion for all the other Tories to stand up and say that
Hance is ‘a wonderful human being, a great humanitarian and a personal friend
of mine.’

I remember
him a little differently.

Hance was an
attorney and law professor from Lubbock who, after serving in the Texas Senate,
ran for Congress in the 19th district in 1978. This race earned his
historical footnote as the only person to beat George W. Bush in an election.
He did this in part by plastering phony invitations to a ‘George Bush for Congress’
beer blast on the windshields of churchgoers in bone-dry west Texas.

Congressman
Hance established a solid conservative voting record and joined the Boll Weevil
Democrats faction that crossed the aisle to enact the Reagan tax cuts. In 1985
Hance switched parties to become a Republican. It was about this time that some
wealthy donor took Hance and fellow party-jumper Phil Gramm to a Super bowl
game. Hearing the crowd roar, Gramm told Hance “If we can lower taxes and end
the deficit, they’ll cheer for us like that.” Needless to say, this didn’t
happen. That would be akin to saying ‘If we lose enough weight on the beer and
cheeseburger diet, we could fly.’

Hance gave
up his seat to make unsuccessful races to be U.S. Senator and Texas Governor,
and served on the Texas Railroad Commission (that regulates the oil business in
Texas.) After his 1990 loss to Clayton Williams, (who lost to Ann Richards
after making a rape joke to reporters) Hance “sought opportunities in the
private sector” and he found them as a lobbyist for GOP moneybags Lonnie
Pilgrim, oilfield mfr. N.L. Industries, and swiftboater Harold Simmons’ Waste Control
Specialties, who won approval to build two nuclear waste dumps in West Texas.

In 2004
Hance became legal counsel to the Alabama Coushatta Tribe, who the year before paid
$18 million for lobbying services to Jack Abramoff and Michael Scanlon, a gravy
train that flowed to Tom DeLay, Ralph Reed, Grover Norquist, and now Kent
Hance. I avidly followed this scandal at the time and never saw Kent Hance’s
name come up, and must say that he was never indicted, prosecuted or convicted
of any wrongdoing. For all I know, the tribe hired Hance to get Abramoff’s hand
out of their pocket.

In 2006 the Board
of Regents of Texas Tech University appointed him Chancellor. Hance donated
$1.75 million to build a chapel there that now bears his name. He achieved his
goal of raising $1 billion for the University, and will retire as Chancellor this
year. The University has already named him Chancellor-Emeritus.

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Chupacabra Report

News that Gets My Goat

-For my morning schadenfreude today I see a Chronicle headline saying Appeals court agrees to review DeLay’s overturned conviction. This news was welcome to me, as I’ve been perplexed recently to read that DeLay has a new job as columnist and radio personality for the Washington (Moonie) Times, and that he gave $1,000 to an otherwise-credible candidate to be my representative in Austin.

DeLay was convicted in 2010 of money laundering and conspiracy for a scheme to illegally spend corporate money in Texas political campaigns. This conviction was overturned in 2013 by two Republican judges on a three-judge-panel, who ruled that “the evidence was legally insufficient to sustain DeLay’s convictions.”

DeLay’s attorney, Brian Wice, said that he looked forward to arguing again that the conviction should be overturned. No doubt. For a defense attorney, Tom DeLay is a gift that keeps on giving.

-President Obama’s nominee for the post of Surgeon General is tied up in the Senate, of course. The issue here is that the NRA found him referring to shootings as a public health problem. Personally, in this country where there are more gun deaths every year than fatal car accidents, I would say that he ought to be disqualified should he not recognize this fact, which is endorsed by physician and hospital groups nationwide. But if the NRA’s against it, so goes the Congress. This would be like Detroit automakers opposing a nominee for advocating a seatbelt requirement.

-NPR had a story today about an unpublished theory from Albert Einstein. This “lost theory” offers a model of a universe expanding after the big bang. Researchers at Hebrew University in Jerusalem found a mistake in Einstein’s calculations, a minus sign that should have been a plus. Astrophysicist Mario Livio, author of “Brilliant Blunders” a book about mistakes made by great scientists said “About 20% of Einstein’s papers contain various mistakes of various degrees. You try to think in unconventional ways and when you do that, guess what? Sometimes you encounter mistakes.” No doubt people lobbying Texas’ State Board of Education will be combing through the work of Isaac Newton now, looking for grounds to finally repeal the law of gravity.

One of the
first political bloggers, Bart opened up shop in 1996, at the height of the
right-wing-conspiracy to undo the election of Bill Clinton by smear campaign
and witch-hunt. His site was lush with photoshop fun, political cartoons and
pages of eye candy called “Bartcop Hotties.” For years he ended every post with
a picture of Shirley Manson from Garbage. But Bart was always “swinging the
hammer” at greed, bad government, bought media and religious insanity. A
redneck progressive, Bart was an avid supporter of the U S Armed Forces and was
frequently outraged at their misuse and neglect by chickenhawks eager to send
them into harm’s way. Bart was big on gun rights, but not opposed to all gun
control, saying that on a scale of 1 to 10, with David Koresh at 10, he’d be a
three. He drew outrage from many when he questioned our unquestioned support of
Israel, suggesting that the country be re-located to Oklahoma. He would banter
with his most rabid critics, posting long email exchanges he posted as “Monkeymail.”

As a sample
of the Bart point-of-view that attracted thousands of readers, this from “Bart’s
Laws:”

Bart's
Law #1

Don't EVER
tell the truth in a political campaign.
People want to be lied to.
They don't care if you're the best, most qualified candidate in history,
they're going to vote for
a candidate who stars in a fuzzy video of him playing with the family dog while
his pearl-necklaced
wife and your 2.3 small children watch in awe while the voice-over dude
explains that this guy
has whatever-state-you-live-in family values.

If you doubt
me, ask President Mondale about telling the truth.

Bart's
Law #2

Any time a person or entity makes a
"mistake" that puts extra money (or power) in their pocket,
expect them to make that "mistake" again and again and again.
That's why refineries have fires now and then,
because a fire allows them to scream "unexpected shortage" so
they can gouge us on the price of gas.

-Bart was a
must-read for so many, often an eye-opener and what good fun! For years I would
re-post items found on Bartcop on my own blog and on Faceplant, and it was
always a thrill when he would post one of my comments, or send me message telling
me that I had the correct answer to one of his “History Mysteries.” Koresh, he’ll
be missed.

Thursday, March 13, 2014

How did I
miss this? It's my Congressman Steve Stockman's mug shot from 1977, when he was
arrested for illegally possessing valium. The Cornyn campaign dug this up and Juanita
Jean was scared to post it because Stockman threatened legal action. Stockman
gave up his re-election campaign to run in the Republican Senate primary, where
he was trounced. He has since threatened to run for office again in the future.
Well, this isn’t a very good picture, but we can always hope to get a new one.

Friday, March 07, 2014

Thursday, February 27, 2014

Dave Camp's Tax Plan

Just saw an article from NYT’s Stephan Ohlemacher about Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp’s tax overhaul plan and to my eye it has a lot to recommend itself. As Ohlemacher says;
“In theory, the unhappiness at both ends of the political spectrum could mean that Camp has hit all the right notes..”
-I always figure that if you have both sides pissed-off you’re getting somewhere.
Being a Republican plan, of course, it starts with tax cuts. Seven tax brackets become two, with a 10% levy on incomes starting at twenty-some thousand, somewhere becoming 25%, and then add a surcharge on incomes over $425,000 (or $450,000 for married households.) The corporate tax rate would fall from 35% to 25%.
So where does the money then come from? Sacred cows.
“Taxes paid to state and local governments would no longer be deductible.”
-That’s scary to folks in high-tax states, but sounds good to me in Texas, with no state income tax to deduct.
“The earned income credit for low-wage workers would be converted to a more limited deduction on payroll taxes.”
-Well, the EITC, a popular program since the 1970s, is designed to help low-wage workers get by. A payroll tax cut could do the same. There is the question of this being corporate welfare for low-paying employers like WalMart, the biggest welfare queen ever.
“Deductions of mortgage interest in the future would be capped at $500,000 of debt, half the current cap.”
-There is also to be, I believe, no more mortgage interest deduction for second homes. Real estate professionals will be screaming bloody murder about this, and there probably ought to be some relief for poor devils of modest means living in high-dollar housing markets, but this has largely been a deduction for the well-heeled. I don’t want to help pay for somebody else’s McMansion.
“Under the Camp plan, private equity and hedge fund managers would be prevented from classifying much of their income as lower-taxed capital gains for tax purposes, closing what Democrats have criticized as the "carried interest loophole."
-Be still my heart! This is the provision that gave Mitt Romney a tax rate lower than mine.
“Camp even embraced an idea that has taken hold in the most progressive parts of the Democratic Party, a tax on transactions by the biggest banks.”
- I love this idea. The ‘economic sector’ has been growing larger in recent decades through a frenzy of mergers and acquisitions, plus such innovations as “outsourcing,” “offshoring” and “dead peasant policies.” A modest transaction tax could raise boatloads of money while acting as a break on such plagues as automated trading and churning of accounts. I can’t believe I’m seeing it in a GOP proposal.

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

"U.S. Government to Release New Dollar Coins"
"Since the 1950's, "In God We Trust" has been our National Motto, and has been inscribed on the front of all coins and the back of all paper currency.
This new coin came out this month. The U.S. Mint hopes the redesigned $1 coin will win acceptance with consumers. It does not have "In God We Trust" on it. Here's another way of phasing God out of America. You guessed it
'IN GOD WE TRUST' IS GONE!!!
"Who originally put 'In God We Trust' onto our currency?
My bet is that it was one of the Presidents on these coins.All our U.S. Government has done is Dishonor them, and disgust me!!! If ever there was a reason to boycott something, THIS IS IT!!!!
DO NOT ACCEPT THE NEW DOLLAR COINS AS CHANGE
Together we can force them out of circulation. Read more at http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/dollarcoin.asp#dI4I80Q2CFeliSfu.99"
-Dear Flanders,
I find it funny when people send these things with links to snopes or some other site that actually debunks the message sent. This is one of those. If you read the links you’ll see that the motto is inscribed on the edge of the coins. Is that not good enough? I imagine it will still provoke litigation from some atheist attorney somewhere.
Snopes does note that the motto was added to currency in the 1950’s. This period of our history is also known as the “red scare,” not one of our best times in many ways. I guess the idea was that the motto would gird us against Godless communism. I’m grateful that God didn’t let us incinerate ourselves in this cause.
I’m sure you’re familiar with the gospel story about coins with Caesar’s picture on them. Re-reading Matthew 20: 21, I have to wonder if we’re making a mistake putting “God” on our currency, as many of us seem to worship money itself.
-Charly Hoarse